“The one thing I know about our team is that we always come back strong after a bad game,” Derick Brassard told The Post following Monday’s gut-check of a 2-1 Game 3 victory over the Penguins that gave the Blueshirts a 2-1 series lead. “That shows what our character is about.

“You know you’re not going to win the Stanley Cup in 16 games, you know you’re not sweeping every series, but still, the way we played on Saturday, we knew it just wasn’t acceptable.

“We didn’t have to talk about it. We knew,” said No. 16, who combined with Rick Nash and Mats Zuccarello to control the play below the Penguins’ goal line for shifts at a time. “Our leadership sets the tone with their attitude and then they bring that onto the ice.

“The way we played in this one, with one line rolling into the next, the way we were on our toes, winning one-on-ones, defending, making them come 200 feet, that was our ‘A’ Game,” Brassard said.

“That was the New York Rangers.”

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there was nothing pretty about this one that was contested along the boards, in the corners and in front of the net almost all the way … and in front of Henrik Lundqvist’s net for significant portions of the third period when the Penguins took advantage of a more passive/cautious Rangers approach.

Apparently conforming to a mandate from NHL headquarters to allow just about anything and everything, the referees called next to nothing, thus prompting both teams to clutch and grab all over the ice, even when such obvious obstruction eliminated scoring chances.

Why the league wants this kind of a game is beyond anyone’s comprehension, but that’s what it got — a game out of the late ’90s and early 2000s, when obstruction and trapping ruled the day.

The Penguins sure have a kick on a couple of obvious Rangers infractions that not only erased opportunities, but immediately preceded both Blueshirts goals that were scored on ensuing rushes. And the Rangers have more of a kick on the frequent times the officials allowed Pittsburgh to hack, whack, bump and run at Lundqvist.

“The way they crash the net, I’m glad I play deep,” said Lundqvist, who went down in the second after contact initiated by Sidney Crosby, who had a compelling night that ended with an uncalled elbow to Ryan McDonagh’s head during a goalmouth scrum following the final horn. “There was nothing said there, but it’s ongoing.

“It’s the kind of thing you have to expect at this time of the year. It doesn’t bother me.”

Saturday bothered the Rangers. Their passiveness and uncharacteristic lethargy bothered them. Again, it’s not that they lost, it’s the way they lost with such little resistance.

“We knew it had to change,” said Keith Yandle, who punctuated a strong night with the home-run feed up the middle that sprang Carl Hagelin for the breakaway goal at 8:43 of the first that gave the Blueshirts a 1-0 lead. “We did the job in the battles, played hard, and paid the price.”

Dan Boyle played his most competitive and hard-edged, effective match as a Blueshirt. Dan Girardi was outstanding. The Tanner Glass-Dom Moore-Jesper Fast fourth line was a unit to be reckoned with as coach Alain Vigneault used Derek Stepan and Moore — who played much of the third period with Hagelin and Fast as the third unit — as the primary matches against Crosby.

“We did what we said we needed to do in getting the puck in deep and then getting good back-pressure,” Hagelin said. “We knew we had to make the game harder for them.”

The Brassard-Rick Nash-Mats Zuccarello line set the tone with a strong down-low shift 6½ minutes into the first that set the template for the remainder of the match. Zuccarello — little man, big heart — was credited with eight hits while Nash, on the puck throughout, had five shots on seven attempts.

“We wanted to make them come 200 feet,” Brassard said. “We wanted to make them defend.”

Through the first 40 minutes, the Rangers dictated well enough — and for the first time in the series, actually — so that Pittsburgh was limited to merely eight even-strength shots (and 21 attempts). Blueshirts line changes were affected with tactical purpose. The final 20 could and should have been more buttoned-down, but this didn’t sully the night.

“Our battle level was higher,” Lundqvist said. “We needed to come back strong. We played the right way.”